Monday 22 May 2017

Set against a background of polarization and global division, Audette Exel AO will share her journey of bridging worlds through her work as Founder of the Adara Group. As a social entrepreneur in the financial services sector, Audette’s out of the box thinking and creative approach has not only empowered people working in financial services to use their mastery for purpose, but has also had a significant impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty across the globe.

It is said that “the only constant is change”.
This is certainly true for our society and also for society’s expectations of individuals, industries and professions.
So, how do we need to “think differently” in a world that is very different to that of not so long ago?
This session is led by industry leaders and will generate discussion in areas where financial services has potentially lagged behind society. The panel’s participants are particular experts in the areas of socioeconomic and gender diversity and inclusion, although the discussion is expected to range across the full gamut of societal change and the “new normal” for expectations of companies and professions.

Fair treatment of customers is something any reasonable Chief Executive would expect their organisation to live by. No organisation wants to incur the wrath of its customers and lose potential repeat business, damage its reputation, or attract negative attention of the media or regulators.

Yet the balancing of different stakeholders’ needs is a tricky business, whether they are customers, shareholders, employees, claimants, continuing policyholders, distribution channel or regulators. Social media enables our customers to reach a wide audience quickly, especially if their story is told in a compelling way, or appeals to our sense of outrage.

In this session you will be challenged to “think differently” about how we

Design our products to minimise the risk of misalignment among stakeholders

Promote ethical behaviour in our organisations

Respond to customers who challenge our business via media, old and new.

Society is starting to think quite differently about mental health than in the past. There is a much greater awareness of the disabling impact of mental illness and much greater levels of recognition and diagnosis. Each year one in five Australians will experience a mental illness and mental illnesses are the third leading cause of disability burden in Australia. Insurance products that protect against illness and disability have struggled to keep pace with these changes and now is the time to think differently about how insurance can best intersect with mental health issues. The panel’s participants are experts in insurance, mental health, disability and compensation and will explore the challenges of mental health issues for insurers and those people with a mental illness.

Big Data”, “Data Scientist”, “robo-advice algorithms”, “analytics”, “machine learning”, “clustering”, “data aggregation”, “predictive modeling”, “data mining” – just some of the terms becoming part of the popular business lexicon. Most actuaries would say that the rest of the world is just catching up with us but using more interesting labels to describe things we have always used and done. As the quantity, quality and accessibility of data increase, so does the pace of change. We need to do more than just keep up; we need to be seen as essential to leading and/or dealing with this change. The panellists will bring a perception from outside our profession of some of the drivers of change and potential implications. This will allow us to consider what roles we can play in ensuring consumers have sustainable, effective and efficient access to solutions to their financial needs.”